Saturday, October 25, 2014

Earlier this week KSN&C received the following from someone claiming to be an FCPS employee and calling him or herself Finn McMissle (finnmcmissle6455@gmail.com). The reader made allegations of inappropriate campaign financing against District 2 candidate for FCPS School Board, Roger Cleveland.

As
an employee of the Fayette County Schools--I cannot give you my name
for fear of retaliation by Tom Shelton and my immediate supervisor--I
feel obligated to report the following information to somebody.

KRS 161.164 (1) and (2) prohibits employees from the
school district from taking part in the management or activities or any
political campaign for school board and prohibits school board
candidates from accepting any "political assessment, subscription,
contribution, or service from any employee of the school district."

As
you can see, Mr. Cleveland has accepted contributions and services from
FCPS Employees in violation of KRS 164.164(1) and (2). Cleveland
returned two monetary donations from employees, one a principal and
other listed as an educator. Cleveland did accept an in-kind
contribution of $100 from Rozalyn Akins 3389 Malone DR. Lexington, KY
40513 for the Lyric Theatre. Akins is employed by the district as the
dean of students at Carter G. Woodson Academy--go check the website--and
is paid through Tom Shelton's superintendent budget. According to the
penalty provisions of KRS 161.990, subsection 1, "Any person who
violates any provision of KRS 161.164 shall be guilty of a Class A
misdemeanor. Any school board candidate or school board member who
willfully violates any provision of KRS 161.164 shall also be
disqualified from holding the office of school board member."
Subsection 2 reads "Any teacher or employee of a district who willfully
violates any provision of KRS 161.164 shall be ineligible for employment
in the common schools for a period of five (5) years."

This
is the type of shady stuff that continues to occur in the Tom Shelton
administration. Are Akins and Cleveland criminally responsible at this
point? Who do I report this to? I hope somebody does something with
this information because what it happening in FCPS is simply not right
or ethical.

"Given the severity of this issue, I am discussing this matter with legal
counsel in order to undertake appropriate action, including but not
limited to any available recourse under Kentucky law," Barnett told KSN&C.

Cleveland did not respond to an invitation from KSN&C to respond to the allegations.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Allegations? More like flat out busted. Tom Shelton sent an email to all staff a few months ago outlining the rules for employees and school board races. So, Akins can't plead ignorance. And, isn't her husband on the Kentucky board? My mercy.....what a mess.

Roger Cleveland should withdraw from the race now. That might be the only thing that prevents Barnett from pursuing this. The Akins, Roger Cleveland and others have way too much to lose if this gets pursued.

Other than your blog, the Lexington news media has been curiously silent regarding this issue as well as the Board elections. Curiously quiet regarding the audit as well. Meanwhile, morale at 701 E. Main St. continues to decline.

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So far as we know, we only get one lifetime. So, when I "retired" in 2004, after 31-years in public education I wanted to do something different. I wanted to teach, write and become a student again. I have since spent a decade in higher ed.

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On the campaign trail...with my wife Rita

An action shot: The Principal...as a much younger man.

Faculty Senate Chair

Serving as Mace Bearer during the Inauguration of Michael T. Benson as EKU's 12th president.

Teaching

EDF 203 in EKU's one-room schoolhouse.

Professin'

Lecturing on the history of Berea College to Berea faculty and staff, 2014.

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